Kaikorai and the early years - Ross Street cable car route

Two Roslyn cable car routes

ODT Tuesday 14-6-2005

Regarding the letter from Marion Strang (13.6.05), there were two routes between Highgate and Frasers Rd, the final Kaikorai terminus of the Roslyn Cable Car Company.

The original route via Belgrave Cres and James St (later Falcon St) was never open to public traffic beyond the Ann St corner. The Public Works Department rated the "let go" curve at the corner of Ann St and James St as far too dangerous to be used "in traffic" with passengers. The gripman was required to "let go" of the rope and to coast around the corner into James (Falcon) St and then "pickup" the rope with the gripper lever while the cable car was moving towards one of the steepest grades in the Dunedin cable car system. The cable car sheds and power house had been shifted to Frasers Rd and empty cable cars would have travelled up and down James (Falcon) St up to a dozen times a day between 1900 and 1906.

Possibly the occasional "friend of the gripman" may have travelled on the cable car on the James St line. Even that must be doubtful as the Public Works Department was very tough on any breaches of its rules. There were two deaths on the Roslyn line. Both were between Cathedral curve and Maclaggan St.

The second Roslyn Cable Car Company line to Frasers Rd ran from the top of Ross St through a reservation down the hill to Frasers Rd. It was opened in 1906. At the insistence of the Public Works Department, it was equipped with a "Fell" centre rail braking system.

This line operated until the Roslyn cable car system closed in 1951. Cable cars going to Frasers Rd like the one in The Evening Star photograph of July 25, 1939, and which you reprinted (ODT, 31.5.05), carried the destination board "Kaikorai" on the back window. Some cable cars carried a destination board marked "Highgate" and reversed over points on to the down line to return to the Exchange near the present bus turning circle at Belgrave Cres.

Bill Campbell
Palmerston

Click - for map of original Falcon Street cable car route 1879 - 1905.
Click - for cable cars and Maori Hill bus meeting at Ross St junction.
Click - for cable car sketch plan/drawing with dimensions.

Pictured above is a Roslyn cable car arriving at Frasers Road from the city. At left of this photo is Falcon Street which was the original route taken by the cable cars as mentioned in the article above.

At right is a photograph taken in 1958 after closure of the cable car route and the tracks removed. This was taken from Belgrave Crescent. Greenock Street can be seen running from centre of photo diagonally to the left with Frasers Road at extreme left about one third from the bottom of the photo.

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